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April 21, 2015

This Week At The Planning Commission: The Evolution Of 24th St Continues

A look at Noe Valley projects in front of the Planning Commission this week. Information is provided by the Planning Commission, and taken from its published agenda. All hearings are on Thursday at 1:30pm, Room 400 in City Hall.

April 23, 2015

3822 24TH STREET - north side of 24th Street between Church and Vicksburg Streets; Lot 018 in Assessor’s Block 3651 - Request for Conditional Use Authorization pursuant to Planning Code Section 303, 317 and 728.37, to allow demolition of an existing two-story single-family dwelling. The proposed new construction includes a five-story-over-basement, five-unit residential with ground-floor commercial building, with five bicycle parking spaces. The building will be approximately 45 feet in height, pursuant to Planning Code Section 263.20. The property is within the 24th Street- Noe Valley NCD (Neighborhood Commercial) Zoning District, and 40-X Height and Bulk District. This action constitutes the Approval Action for the project for the purposes of CEQA, pursuant to Section 31.04(h) of the San Francisco Administrative Code.

Preliminary Recommendation: Approve with Conditions

Records show the existing single family home at 3822 24th St was purchased in $759k in 2012, and the current owner has lived there since. Interesting, the application filed in 2014 includes an appraisal for the house as is: But rather than cash out, the owner is looking big: five new units (three of which are "family size") over retail. As shown in the picture above, the proposed building is roughly the size of the new construction next door. And as it is close to major public transportation, there will be no parking on site for autos (but yes for bicycles).

Full plans, staff analysis and thirteen letters of support (mostly from area merchants) are included in the application. There are no letters in opposition.

Also at the Planning Commission this week is the continuation of 4022-4026 24th St - the Bliss Bar building. A final decision was postponed on March 26th so that the project sponsor and concerned neighbors could meet and hammer out some compromises. The issues include the larger space taking up 100% of the rear yard, amplified music and (of course) lack of parking among other things. According to a comment on April 5th, it does not appear that the project sponsor was willing to compromise. We'll see what the Planning Commission says.

Update (4/24): After a brief presentation by the project sponsor of 3822 24th St that highlighted the fact that there was no one in opposition, two people stood up to voice their concerns. Both are Elizabeth St residents, and neither had heard of the project until it was highlighted in the Chronicle last week (they missed the mailings, large posters, etc). Their concerns were predictable: light, shadow, harshness of design and the changing character of 24th St.

The Commissioners agreed that the design is a bit "brutal" and asked that the architect work to soften the facade. Commissioner Moore also asked that the location of the stair and elevator penthouses be consolidated to reduce shadows. With those conditions the project was approved 7-0.